Primary Care Accelerated Track (PC-ACT) Program

Three Sites, Two Tracks, One Primary Care Mission

This program allows for students interested in a career in family medicine or general internal medicine the opportunity to complete their medical school coursework in an accelerated 3-year program of study.

This PC-ACT curriculum builds upon the strengths of the MUSM problem-based curriculum with clinical experiences and community medicine activities built into the preclinical curriculum and reinforced through continued longitudinal clinical experiences at the ACT site, clerkships, sub-internships, and elective experiences.

The educational objectives for this program are comparable to those for the four-year MD program. The curriculum is essentially the same as the curriculum for the 4-year MD program but is compressed into 130 weeks of instructional time.

The program offers more educational contact opportunities between students and the respective residency faculty in the chosen specialty at their assigned site. The Family Medicine Accelerated Track is offered in Savannah, Macon, and Columbus. The Internal Medicine Accelerated Track is offered in Savannah and Macon. The plan for student graduates of the PC-ACT Program at Mercer is to complete their residency training at their ACT site.

Students may apply for admission in this program as a first-year medical student and through direct admission following acceptance of admission to the four-year program.

Applicants must be accepted to MUSM's 4 year M.D. program prior to applying for the Accelerated Track.

Students must demonstrate a commitment to excellence and a strong desire to enter a career in family medicine or general internal medicine. Since this program is an accelerated three-year curriculum, demonstrated evidence of academic excellence is a requirement for acceptance.

Only students who meet the following criteria will be considered for the program:

A firm commitment to primary care

Maturity necessary to be successful in an accelerated three year program

A strong academic record

Once accepted, a student may remain in the program as long as they remain satisfactory in all educational programs. A student who becomes unsatisfactory in any program will be returned to the four-year MD program. A student may opt to return to the four-year MD program at any time.

Students enrolled in the 3 year Accelerated Track Program are eligible to receive the Primary Care Mission Scholarship. The scholarship covers 100% tuition for the final 2 years of medical school in exchange for a commitment to practice either Family Medicine or General Internal Medicine for 3 years in a rural or medically underserved Georgia county. The Medical practice must accept Medicaid patients. (Other primary care specialties may be added at a later date.)